Nearly 300 people attended the Maryland Catholic Women’s Conference Oct. 6, held at the motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Arbutus.

Cardinal Lawrence Shehan appointed Father A. Leo Abendschoen as founding pastor of Church of the Annunciation June 8, 1968, in response to rapid growth in northeastern Baltimore City and the surrounding Baltimore County.

Parishioners of St. Isaac Jogues in Carney have been celebrating the parish’s 50th anniversary with bus trips and anniversary apparel.

The Franciscan Center’s most robust outreach is a meal program. In fiscal year 2018, nearly 300,000 meals were distributed through the hot, healthy lunch and dinner programs, and emergency grocery bags. Lunches are offered on weekdays, and dinners on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Paul McMullen finds boundless inspiration from young people.

Bill Ballantyne was honored Oct. 2 at Ceresville Mansion in Frederick as the 2018 John McElroy Award winner by the Friends of Catholic Education, an independent organization which provides scholarships and tuition assistance for Catholic schools in Frederick County.

Each year the U.S. Catholic Church observes October as Respect Life Month, which calls Catholics “to cherish, defend and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between,” said the chairman of the bishops’ pro-life committee.

St. Joseph is among the parishes in the Archdiocese of Baltimore with a strong Hispanic presence that have great anticipation of the Oct. 15 canonization of Blessed Oscar Romero, who is to become the first saint from El Salvador.

A funeral Mass was offered Sept. 15 for Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul Sister DeSales Wisniewski at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg. Sister DeSales, who spent most of her ministry in health care, died Sept. 8 at 88. She spent 70 years as a Daughter of Charity.

Outside the Catholic Center in downtown Baltimore, across the street from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Jen Ayres has prayed the rosary on her lunch hour most weekdays beginning in late August.